of course, he's going have to preside over some of those defense cuts to the pentagon. does this weaken his hand going forward with members of congress on both sides of the aisle? >> if i may follow up on that nia-in alika, the confirmation hearings, what does that suggest the kind of secretary of defense he will be? >> there was a sense from those confirmation hearings that he wunt real wasn't really prepared on some of the issues specifically the administrati administration's position on iran. he wasn't prepared on those questions and hadn't been reading up on what this administration's policy is in terms of containing and not even containing, but stopping iran from getting a nuclear weapon. so i think that really didn't do him any favors and really ended up dragging this process out much longer than it needed to be. i think it goes to show that in many ways hagel was a nominee that didn't have a cheerleading section in the democratic party or the republican party and so i think he's got some work to do in terms of mending fences going forward. >> john, in an op ed fo